Lawmakers say hospitals will be sold

Request being made this week for legislators to allow individual sale of facilities

Prince George's County lawmakers say they are optimistic that the joint county and state authority will find buyers for the ailing county hospital system, despite recent setbacks in the bidding process that will likely force the three facilities to be sold individually.

"This authority has moved the hospital [issue] further along than we have seen in the last seven or eight years," said Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Dist. 25) of District Heights.

Currie joined a chorus of lawmakers last week in Annapolis who said they still have faith that an independent board will be able to hammer out a deal for companies to take the losing health care facilities off their hands later this year.

The General Assembly is expected to introduce legislation this week that will allow the three hospitals in Laurel, Cheverly and Bowie to be sold individually if needed. Right now, legislation requires the hospitals be sold as a group or not at all.

"We need to be in a position where we can be working with any interested party," said Glover, who said later that he sees the separate deal option "as an opportunity."

The authority was commissioned last summer in hopes that a group of professionals could find a way to sell the public system that includes Laurel Regional Hospital, Bowie Health Center and Prince George's Hospital Center in Cheverly.

Though the facilities serve more than 180,000 people a year, the high number of uninsured patients has caused the system to lose about $12 million a year. The deficits have required frequent bail-outs from the county and state governments.

Glover announced last month that no company is interested in buying all three facilities due to the current economy, raising concerns that the government may be left to shut down the leftover hospitals.

The biggest financial burden is the Cheverly facility, the largest county-owned medical facility. More than half its patients are uninsured, though it is the second-busiest trauma center in Maryland.

"I know you have a difficult job to do. When we started this process, no one could have envisioned the state we are in," said Sen. C. Anthony Muse (D-Dist. 26) of Fort Washington. "But if you sell it off in pieces, that just leaves us with the Prince George's Hospital Center."

Authority members said they will not allow any deal to go through that does not include the sale of all three centers, including the one in Cheverly.

"It is the lynchpin for the whole region," said authority member Joseph Wright. "It provides a service that isn't just specific to the county. If Cheverly were to go down, it would have a domino effect across the region."

Authority members said last week they still don't know how they would divide up the joined system's assets and debts among multiple buyers. In addition to outstanding pension debts that cover all three facilities, state and county officials have pledged to spend $174 million in one-time financial aid to a new owner that would have to be split among three purchasers.

Authority members are expected to collect bids for the hospitals for review by March 16. They are scheduled to discuss their progress on Feb. 23.

Officials are negotiating with seven different companies interested in the facilities.